


Obligation & Realness

by woofbebe



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Chocolate, Flustered Minhyuk, Giri choco, Honmei choco, Japanese Culture, M/M, Maybe will rot your teeth too IDK, Monsta X Bingo, Teasing Wonho, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff, Wonhyuk - Freeform, cameo Changki, minor showhyuk, sweet tooth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-13 01:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10503471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woofbebe/pseuds/woofbebe
Summary: In which Minhyuk bought chocolates for himself and his band mates on his trip to the chocolatier while they were in Japan.Yet, for a certain person, just a 'giri choco' isn't enough, and he was determined to make Minhyuk know the 'other' chocolate was his in the first place.-Late Valentine fic *sobs*--Monsta X Bingo Lv. 1 : Valentine's Day-





	

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly unbeta-ed, oTL  
> Guess who's taking shortcuts for Bingo by turning this into chapters, hahaha. Btw you guys doooon't know how hard it is to write this fic. I keep craving for chocolates the whole time writing it I had to stock them. *noms another bite*

It was February, and they were in Japan. They had a series of stages planned, but overall, they were still halfway through as half of them were still undone. Each of them was so busy practicing and fulfilling their schedule of events, that none of them -not even Minhyuk- realized it was the so-called month of love until they came close to the middle of the month and Valentine decorations were everywhere, shoving themselves to their faces everywhere they went.

The notions and attributes were here and there; on TV, on sidewalks, on cars—buses, and even on the buildings where they held their shows. Usually they were promotions of Valentine related deals, especially chocolate and some pricey gifts, but those were hardly what people noticed first, anyway. It was simply pink, and red, and pink, and red, _everywhere._ You just could _not_ miss it. It kinda surprised some of the members how big of an event is Valentine’s Day in Japan, or to be exact, how _commercialized_ it is. It’s not like in Korea the day wasn’t all that festive—it was, nevertheless the celebration was still no match to the level of hype the sunrise nation had.

It was kind of sad, though, but not really because of the common reason some people were kind of gloomy around Valentine. It wasn’t like any of them was seeing anyone, anyway (they’re seeing Monbebes, but we all knew that’s beside the point). What made it such a shame was that they were too busy to really partake in the merry celebration, whatsoever. Especially for the foods, because the whole team absolutely loved good foods. (Yes, it’s good ol’ foods).

 

By the middle of the second week of the month, some whines and groans could already be heard every time they passed by such ads. Minhyuk would whine and stare longingly every time he saw chocolate (and perfume and body care) ads, and Jooheon and Shownu would groan every time they saw any promising meal or dinner deals. In addition, Changkyun would pout every time he saw sweets deals (–or toys –or basically any random-Changkyun-things kind of deals really), which then would soon get Kihyun trying to comfort the maknae.

“.....I heard the marshmallow smoothie that cafe makes is really delicious, Hyung... I wanna go there at least once..,” said the rapper sadly as their car passed a Valentine promo banner in front of what seems to be a fancy cafe.

Kihyun who walked beside him sighed.

“I know.. It seems really delicious as well. ..But you know we still have schedules tonight, right?”, he replied softly.

At that, the younger slouched down on his seat, pursing his lips.

“We won’t have enough time to properly enjoy the meal even if we go there now, but perhaps we’d have some free time later. Wait for it a bit more, ok?”, he continued, feeling guilty as if he had just crushed the boy’s hopes (which he probably had, indeed).

He then gave the maknae a motherly smile while ruffling his hair tenderly, trying to cheer the boy up. Kihyun’s eyes softened as he saw it succeeded, if how the boy leaned into his touch and sighed contently were any indication.

Then again, it wasn’t like it’s just the maknae who showed complaints. Pretty much all of them could hardly keep it to themselves. It was pretty hard to be around great food deals almost 24/7, yet knowing that they wouldn’t be able to grab them for they knew their schedule was packed to the brim. Sure, they could grab some mediocre, common deals found in shops or marts near their hotel, but it was never the big shots.

 

 Which was probably why Minhyuk dashed outside as soon as he got the word from the manager that they were discharged for the day.

 

Minhyuk guessed it was some sort of technical problem they were having. Something that had to do with their lighting equipment or such. He didn’t really care, though, he didn’t listen all that well. All he cared about since the words were out were just that he _needs_ to go to that popular chocolatier that many people seemed to be raving about in the SNS. ASAP.

The place was supposed to be an hour ride from the hotel, and was located on a small yet stylish street, filled with cafes, patisseries, and gift shops. He had read about the shop, as well as the district as a whole from the recommendation tweets sent to him (or we could say, to their account in general) by fans as soon as they knew they were going to Japan. To be honest, it seemed to fit his tastes really well, and looking at so many ads of the chocolatier in the magazine provided by the hotel just made his excitement worse.

At first, he contemplated to go there via bus, but then he realized maybe that won’t be too secure nor convenient considering his position, so he took a cab. He shared the cab with Hyungwon whom he met in the lobby just when he was about to head out the hotel. It seemed that the tall man was also planning to visit the same district, wanting to check a specialty watches shop not too far from the chocolatier Minhyuk was headed to. They shared the ride talking about which souvenirs to bring back home and either eat together or decorate their dorm with.

The ride already took a quarter past an hour when they reached the district’s entrance, and they both split up after they got off the cab. It took Minhyuk barely ten minutes walk to find the chocolatier he was looking for, squeezed between a coffee shop and an antique perfumery (he took notes to check it too after he’s done with the chocolatier).The exterior and interior were both dominated by woods, and the atmosphere felt warm yet still very classy.

_LAURESTINE Chocolatier._

 

He saw the shop name imprinted on the big window in white, the small flowers framing the sides in matching colors. Inside, he could see various shelves and tables lined around the shop, filled with beautiful displays of various chocolates. As he quickly scanned from outside, there didn’t seem to be that many visitors inside to his relief, perhaps since it was a late weekday morning. As much as he liked festivity and merriness, he weren’t all that fond of being pushed here and there squeezed inside a crowded place.

The brunette adjusted his sling bag strap on his shoulder before finally entering the shop. He heard a pleasant tinkling sound of the door bell as soon as he opened the wooden-framed glass door. An attendant behind the short glass display noticed him and greeted him with a smile and a bow, which he replied all the same, though a bit startled at first. It was pretty warm inside, he thought, such a contrast to the crisp winter air outside. He definitely preferred it so, though, humming approvingly and already taking mental notes that the place was his new favorite.

He began to check on the displays, eyes sparkling at the cute and exquisite designs of chocolates. He saw some in intricately patterned bars, some in decorated bite size cube-like pieces. He then also found jars filled with soft colorful chocolate drops, grinning at the flower shapes. As he continued strolling happily down the dark marble aisle, his eyes lit up realizing that apparently the shop also sold other kinds of sweets. There was a small section for macaroons, lined up neatly in variation of colors, and then there were confeito jars followed by another section lined with homemade candy pops and lollipops, amongst other sweets.

After the short survey, he went around the shop once more to grab two jars of confeitos, one for his personal stash and one for in the dorm in case anyone would want some sweets. Then he too grabbed a jar with soft colorful chocolate drops for Kihyun, and another box of macaroons for Changkyun. He knew they would owe him for this, smiling happily remembering two of the members that shared the sweet tooth with him. He then went back the aisle to the chocolate section, now contemplating which to buy for himself. He grabbed a best-seller assorted chocolate box and two small jars filled with chocolate truffles, filling up his basket even more. As he was leaving for the cashier,  however, he caught two girls talking in Japanese. He could hardly understand them, with his very newly-learned Japanese linguistic skills, but alas he did make out what they were talking about. They were discussing which _giri choco_ to buy for their colleagues.

 _Giri choco_.

He recalled his friend from GOT7 who had gone to Japan earlier mentioned the tradition while they were backstages in a music show a month ago. Mark said one of the fans told him that in Japan there was a tradition in which you also give chocolates to co-workers and friends, called obligation-chocolates or _giri choco_. And then there’s this ‘real-feeling’ chocolate called _honmei choco._ Minhyuk was already familiar with the chocolate-giving tradition, especially the one with similar nature as _honmei choco_ , but it was a first for such a thing called ‘obligation-chocolate’. He had sometimes received chocolates from girls before back in his high school days, but the idea of giving his friends chocolates were quite new, and to be frank, he thought it was a good one.

Contemplating on the idea, he tried to recall the total of cash that he brought.  It seems it was still sufficient, he concluded. _Might as well buy them some._ He grinned.

He went back to the aisle near the big window, he was sure there were quite some good one-portion chocolates displayed there. And indeed there were. In between the lines of displays were star-shaped chocolates, wrapped in brown-tinted plastic bags and tied at the top with tiny golden ropes. Minhyuk glanced at them in glee, humming approvingly. He picked seven of them (he also wanted to try them) and put it into the basket. As he was about to leave for the cashier, though. The other _thing_ returned to tug at his mind.

_The honmei choco._

Was it necessary? It’s not like there was someone he actually liked. Or maybe there was. Okay, Minhyuk thought maybe that was perhaps too much denials for the so-called Day of Love. In fact, there were _perhaps_ more than one of them.

_Sigh._

Okay, there were absolutely more than one of them, that at least he would still reluctantly admit it to himself that he did have feelings for. The two in question being their cute-oblivious leader, and the other also cute, yet not so oblivious sexiness mascot of the team (not his words, it was officially dubbed by the team and fans already). But it didn’t mean he had to confess, right? Or wait, was giving out chocolates considered confessing? He felt a headache was starting to form in his temple.

He had known this for a long time, even back in their pre-debut days. It was just he tried so hard to go around it for so long, despite he might look all touchy-feely with them outside. He knew probably no one that he cared would actually mind (if the ‘ships’ posts flooding his fake SNS account he made to check on the Monbebes were to go by), but it just felt somehow unprofessional? You know, like the common no-dating-coworkers rule in workplaces?

That aside, he was kind of afraid by what their responses would be. He did think it was unlikely for any of them to respond rudely; but there was no guarantee that everything would always go well, was there? It could ruin the team’s dynamics. Schedules. Even their relationship with the company. No, it wouldn’t be something Minhyuk could afford, he knew that. So, no matter how painful it is for him to hold himself back from going further on their acceptance of his closeness or skinship, or from indulging even more in their advances (especially from a _certain_ always-teasing hyung), he would need to just shut it. Just shut his mouth and clean his mind away from even acknowledging the issue existed.

That was probably why he went back on his way to the cashier as soon as he felt his mind wandering to that particular topic too much.

 

No, he certainly didn’t know what’s that sleek magenta heart-shaped chocolate box doing in his shopping basket, nor why he was paying for it.

 

 

 

*****

**Author's Note:**

> Uhu please look forward to the last half ;w; As always, kudos and comments will make my day! ;v;)/


End file.
